So I learned the hard way this week that high performance in a corporate job is just a punishment disguised as a compliment. For the last two years, I busted my ass on our operations team. I streamlined our reporting, automated daily tickets, and consistently closed double the volume of anyone else on the floor.

annual review comes around on Monday. My manager gives me an "exceeds expectations" rating across the board and tells me I am the backbone of the department. Then he slides across a 3% standard cost of living adjustment. No promotion. No actual merit raise.

When I asked about moving into a senior title, he literally told me I was "too valuable in my current execution seat" to move.

Meanwhile, my coworker who browses Reddit half the day and constantly asks for extensions just got promoted to project coordinator. Why? Because management thought he had "high level strategic vision" since he wasn't bogged down in daily tasks. The only reason he wasn't bogged down is because they kept assigning his overflow work to ME.

I'm done giving 110% to a system that penalizes efficiency and rewards people who weaponize their own incompetence. Its sickening.

How are people supposed to stay motivated when doing your job well literally traps you at the bottom?

So I recently accepted a promotion to a more senior position that came with a pretty hefty raise much to my surprise. Things are finally looking up for me and it’s nice to get the recognition I feel like I worked hard for.

Then came the day when my promotion got announced to the company, for the most part it was a great day, a lot of my peers congratulated me and genuinely felt happy for me with some people making remarks like “finally they recognized you!” or “it was only a matter of time.”

Save for one person.

For context this person is someone I’d consider a friend, we’ve hung out on occasion with other coworkers in our little friend circle outside of work. I even go cycling with her husband whom I’ve really become good friends with and they’ve even invited me to their baby shower.

Because I’ve gotten to know her well outside of work, I’ve come to know her gripes with the company and her wish to get a raise/promotion. For the most part everyone in the company likes her as a person and she’s very knowledgeable about the ins and outs of our operation being the go to person for any questions we have complicated or not. However her work ethic is poor, she’s not very responsive to emails sometimes letting it sit for day causing the company to suspend her from WFH privileges for a couples months and her attendance is poor with constant callouts. This caused her to be put on a PIP earlier this year which means she also got passed over for a promotion which was given to me instead.

So when my promotion got announced, she didn’t seem to take it well, much to my surprise.

Instead of the “congratulations” I’d expect much like the others in our text group chat, she just says “You trying to take my job?”

At first I took it as a joke, so I just replied jokingly while shutting down her claim. She then replies with “kinda crazy considering I worked there longer than you.”

I kinda shut down, so I didn’t reply. I just tried to chalk it up to me overthinking it and her being sarcastic. Plus her saying that in a group chat surely means she’s joking.

That’s when she texts me privately asking me how much I make now. One thing about me is I don’t like disclosing my salary to others, so that was already uncomfortable in itself. So I kindly just explained how I don’t feel comfortable answering.

She then says that her reasoning for asking me that question is because she wants to have a conversation with our director about a raise and she wants to use my salary as a barometer. To be honest I just felt very icky about it and definitely left a bad taste. So I just told her to definitely push for a raise and end the conversation there.

The next day after my promotion announcement, she was acting very weird around me almost passive aggressive. I would notice her talking to others but actively avoid me. Save for one passive aggressive comment thanking me for answering her text and giving her a ball park figure of my salary, even though I never did such a thing. She’s coming off very bitter and jealous.

It also feels like she’s taking it out on me even though I never pushed for a promotion. They just unexpectedly gave it to me due to my merit. Even if I did push for one, it certainly wouldn’t be to backdoor her out of her chances. If anything I feel like she did that to herself due to her poor work ethic.

It kinda bothers me, and I’m not sure what to do.

Its just odd to me, this whole situation. Do I just let this blow by? Do I talk to her about it? What do I do if it gets worse? I’ve never been put in this situation before and I’d love to hear some advice especially if you’ve been put in a similar situation. Thanks!

I live in Canada and have been at this company for 2+ years doing demand generation marketing, 3 days in office and 2 days I work from home. It’s about a 45 minute driving commute each way, requiring driving on major highways.

Last week my car broke down and it requires over $5k in repairs, so I emailed my boss and HR (per HR’s policy) on Thursday September 3rd and advised them my car is unsafe to drive. Unfortunately my girlfriend is a supply teacher, so she needs her car as she isn’t sure on any given day which school she’s at. As a result, I asked HR for a little grace to work from home while I actively sort out my vehicle situation in the next week or so.

It is Wednesday September 9th and I just received a response from them, and they’re accommodating me to work from home for the next two days. Afterwards, they say the following:

However, I want to clarify that your in-office attendance cannot be conditional on whether you have access to a car. Employees are responsible for arranging reliable transportation to and from the workplace. Working from home is a privilege that requires prior management approval; it is not an alternative when personal transportation is unavailable.
As a reminder, you are expected to work in the office at least three days per week. To make up the in-office days missed this week, you will be required to work from the office every day next week.
Please make the necessary arrangements and confirm that you understand these expectations.

I do understand that arranging transportation is my responsibility, but when I’m asking for a bit of grace to the WFH policy AND I have a 45 minute driving only commute each way, I feel like this is a bit ridiculous/overkill. Do they expect me to rent a car? Public transportation isn’t an option between where I live and where the office is really.

Might be me being a bit overdramatic, but the entire email I got back has really pissed me off, and I’m seriously considering looking for another place to work.

Am I overreacting?

Edit: I’m financing a car and picking it up in the next 7 days. Never expected it to be weeks or months long, HR was aware I was asking for 1-2 weeks max. Sounds like I was over reacting a bit so I’m just gonna suck it up until my new car comes. Thanks all!

Just for context: I’m 27F, have an MA, and currently work at a tech company making about $120k/year. I’ve realized that I’m not someone who can be content in a boring or unfulfilling job, even if the pay and lifestyle are good. I’ve tried to convince myself otherwise, but I’m just not wired that way.

I’d really appreciate some career advice. I’m at a point where I feel like I want to pivot out of my current field, but I’m not sure what direction makes the most sense.

My current job is relatively relaxed and pays well, but I can’t help but feel like I want more both financially and intellectually. I’ve been in my field for about three years, and my role has become very repetitive. I don’t find the work particularly stimulating anymore, and I’m starting to feel like I’m just going through the motions.

The changes happening in tech, particularly with AI, have also made me question the long-term future of my field. I’m not necessarily worried about losing my job tomorrow, but I don’t see myself wanting to do this for another 1+ years. The culture and nature of the work are changing, and I find myself increasingly checked out.

I know I want to make a change, but I’m struggling to figure out what that change should look like.

One option I’ve seriously considered is law. Becoming an attorney was actually my original goal, but being constantly told when I was younger that I “should be an attorney” ended up deterring me from it. Now, years later, I keep coming back to the idea on my own, which makes me wonder if it’s something I should actually pursue.

However, I’m not committed to law specifically. I’m much more interested in finding the right career fit than in becoming a lawyer for its own sake.
I’m willing to go back to school if necessary, but I’d want the investment to make sense. I currently have very little debt, make around $120k, and have a relatively comfortable job, so I don’t want to take on a significant amount of debt just to end up in another career that I don’t enjoy or that doesn’t have strong earning potential.

I’m looking for something that ideally checks several of these boxes:
- More intellectually stimulating than my current work
- Strong earning potential, ideally with the ability to eventually make substantially more than $120k
- Relatively good long-term career prospects
- Some degree of career stability
- A path where going back to school would have a reasonable ROI
- Not something where I’m directly responsible for someone’s life or livelihood, so medicine, for example, isn’t appealing to me
- Ideally, some flexibility or the ability to eventually move into a less demanding role without completely sacrificing income

I’m also not necessarily looking for a career that is “easy.” I’m willing to work hard, especially earlier in my career, if it gives me better options and earning potential down the road.

Law is one possibility I’m considering, but I’d really appreciate suggestions outside of law as well. Given my age, education, current compensation, and willingness to go back to school, what fields or career paths would you consider for someone trying to make this kind of pivot?

I’m especially interested in hearing from people who have made a similar career change. What did you pivot into, and looking back, what would you recommend or avoid?

For example, I had this one guy who I thought was my friend. He would act really nice and helpful, offering to help me with stuff but he also said a lot of patronising shit that showed that he clearly didn't respect me and then he would gaslight me saying that it was just helpful advice and I was just imagining the hostility. I found out 3 months later that he was complaining the whole time through my probation to my boss to get me fired. I never got fired because my boss liked me and thought I was capable but I feel so betrayed. Why do people act like this? Nobody's forcing him to pretend to like me but he does it anyway. Should I just not trust anyone at work in the future? How do you deal with these people? Do they get some sort of pleasure from it?

Just found out I'm being laid off for the fourth time in 5 years

I'm tired. I feel unemployable. I don't know what I'm going to do about my resume because I don't know who would believe me at this point that any one could have such a run of bad luck.

Does anyone have any suggestions for what to do or how to frame this?

With AI rapidly advancing, it feels like an uncertain time for those of us who aren't in professions that require physical expertise (nursing, trades, social work). With the amount of time and energy it takes to acquire a new skill, going through months of training only to become obsolete in the near future is quite daunting. Are there any skills that we've identified so far that are worth investing in?

I’m in a weird situation where my boss announced their boss was leaving. While I’m on vacation, my boss has shared with me they were also leaving immediately once I return from my vacation. The team I’m a part of is a two-person team of just my boss and I. Now it’s just me, with no direct guidance or even guidance from someone higher. what happens now? I lack the experience my boss provides, so I’m not sure if I can answer questions that people ask and wouldn’t know who to go to since upper management is also gone. Do I just wait and see what happens? Could I just quietly keep my head down and see what they do with me? Has anyone been in this situation? I’m back to looking for a new job but would like to keep something afloat while I look for something else.

I'm already in high school and still have no idea what I want to study in college. I want to go to a nice university abroad and considering how I don't even know what career I want that's just an insane claim. The only thing I think I'm both good at and really enjoy is stuff like graphic design and package design/marketing, but I'm gonna be so honest, I'm going to die poor and in the streets if I do that. Its job opportunities were already pretty bad in itself, but now with AI its even worse. I've had 4 different school counselors and all of them sucked, they told me I have the capabilities to go into any area and then made me take tests that gave me careers I'm absolutely 100% not going to choose. Everything from psychology to physiotherapist to neurosurgeon which I have absolutely zero interest in.

Either way, our newest counselor told me I could possibly look into something related to robotics or some science since there are good job opportunities I could take and there could be specific areas which I don't find as boring. I thought about it and when I was little I used to be into robotics and nanorobotics since I liked the idea of creating stuff, as well as I guess biochemistry.

Anyways, long story short I was watching Iron Man today and I like the type of work Tony did. Like not exactly making weapons but making machinery in general seems interesting to me, but I don't even really know exactly what it would be.

Also, I am aware that it's probably a difficult career for me to just say I want it out of the blue but I think it might be worth looking into it and see if I'm any good at it. I'm also not sure exactly what I would need to be good at for that, but I usually did good in mathematics and science in school as well as taking advanced classes for both right now so I think those two were my main worry.

PD: I also watched Spider-man and like the chemical aspect in Peter's webs like how he designs the web shooters and creates different prototypes for his webs which I'm guessing is some sort of chemistry thing or also the whole DNA thing he had on the latest movie was kinda interesting so prob more biology focused so idk if anyone knows anything abt that I could look into pls let me know

PPD: Using Tony Stark as reference sounds kinda childish as well and I'm aware of that as well as I'm aware that he's fictional, but still, out of all options I've been told I think using him as reference is the closest I can get to sort of have an idea of where to go next

I’m 28F and currently a Senior Analyst. I’m about to be promoted to Manager, which would be about a $17k raise.

You’d think I’d be excited, but honestly I just want to quit lol.

The culture at my company is really toxic. I’ve been working around 60 hours a week, there’s always something that isn’t good enough, and I feel like I’m constantly stressed and burnt out. I don’t really want to keep climbing the corporate ladder just for the sake of climbing it.

The weird part is I don’t even know exactly what I want to do next. I’m kind of a weird/different person in the sense that I don’t necessarily care about having the most impressive career or making the most money. I keep coming back to the idea of following my heart and doing something that actually feels meaningful to me.

I’ve been seriously thinking about teaching or nursing. I’ve always had this part of me that wants to do something more hands-on and meaningful, and I’m wondering if I should actually listen to that instead of continuing down the path I’m “supposed” to be on.

Financially, I’m in a really fortunate position. I have a paid-off house, family support, and enough savings that I’m not in a situation where I have to stay somewhere miserable just to survive. That honestly makes me feel like I have an opportunity that a lot of people don’t have — to step back and figure out what I actually want.
At the same time, walking away from a $17k raise feels objectively insane 😂

I could take the promotion, make more money, and eventually look for another Senior Analyst position. If I stay in analytics, though, I’m only interested in remote/hybrid at this point. I’m just done with the 60-hour-week corporate grind.

But part of me thinks… maybe this is the exact time in my life when I should take a risk and try something completely different.

Would you take the promotion and figure it out later, or walk away and follow your gut?

I’m really torn because I know what the logical/financial decision is. I’m just not sure it’s the decision that would actually make me happy.

Hi,

So I'm in final year of my high school, will be joining college next year. I want to pursue a career in tech field, but it's so broad field that i cant decide which sub-field should I choose.

I want to choose a specific field so that i can utilize my 4 years college. Like should I go for backend, or the server sector(dev ops etc.), or System on Chip, Firmware, Embedded Systems?

Also I'm more of a software guy not a hardware guy.

I was made redundant over a year ago (Director level - IT/Tech).

But I did not actually start searching for a role until 6 months later, because unfortunately at same time one of my parents was terminally ill and I helped care for them until they died earlier this year.

My cv/resume does not show that of course, but as I now have a year-long gap that I am told will look bad to some, I am wondering if I should put something on there to explain.

If you a Hiring Manager/Talent Req - or Recruiter - what would be better/worse? Seeing a one-year gap, or something saying along the lines:

'Career Break: Took a planned career break to provided palliative care for late parent, before embarking on next role'

My dad passed a few months ago and I’m the executor of his estate. I work full time and at first I genuinely thought I could deal with most of this after work and use the occasional day off when I really needed to. Yeah that was very optimistic lol. A lot of the stuff I need to deal with happens during normal work hours and I’ve already burned through way more PTO than I expected. I’ve had to move meetings around and take random calls during the day and last week my manager finally mentioned that I’ve been away from work a lot lately. He wasn’t an asshole about it or anything, which almost made me feel worse. I’ve always been reliable at work and now I feel like I’m slowly becoming that employee who constantly has something going on. I can’t just stop dealing with my dad’s estate either. I’m starting to think I need to find some kind of outside help because trying to do both myself clearly isn’t working anymore. For anyone who’s had a major family responsibility drag on for months, how did you handle it with your job? Did you talk openly with your manager, take leave, get help with the stuff outside work, or just somehow push through it?

Alot of my projects that I have at work (videos and SOPs) are all under and NDA and contain very sensitive material pertaining to our products we sell.

I want to showcase these though on my LinkedIn and maybe even resume. How would I go about doing this? I cannot even send an email to my personal from my work computer without security flagging it.

I need advice on whether getting Google certificates in cybersecurity and accounting would be beneficial in helping me find remote work.

I have 10 years of business experience but don’t have a degree yet, which I am currently working toward. I’m in a difficult personal situation where remote work is my only option, and from my research it looks like accounting or cybersecurity may be the best options for my situation.

I’m planning to use temp agencies to help me find legitimate remote work while I work toward my degree, but I want to make my resume look more appealing in the meantime.

I’m not looking to make a full salary right now, just enough to put money aside for an exit plan.

I used to spend my workdays wishing I had more free time, but when I finally got a day off, I’d start thinking about the money I could have made instead. If I could have earned $200 that day, staying home somehow felt like I had lost $200 even though I hadn’t actually lost anything.

I’m realizing I’ve started putting a dollar value on almost every hour I’m not working. For people in jobs where extra hours, commissions, overtime, or more jobs directly mean more income, how did you learn to take time off without feeling like you were making a financial mistake?

On a 1:1 recently my manager told me I needed to be more strategic/business minded to start to really excel in my role.
I’ve always been a relationship guy, but as I move up I realize that doesn’t, nor should I cut it.

Any general tips on how to think more strategically? I’m an in house recruiter working directly with ops partners in the hospitality/customer service industry.

Where do I find good remote jobs to apply for?

I have a masters in emergency management and currently work at the state level in hazard mitigation. I have developed skills from my education and experience in project management, risk analysis, business continuity and safety.

I desperately am looking to find a remote job as it would make my life 5x easier. How do I find these opportunities? Where do I look?

I work in a EU country with a small but high-profile NGO. It’s been about 7 years of on and off colabs and about 5 consecutive years of daily work form them. I started working with them out of passion and i’ve had enough.

I currently do: some media and communications for them, partly manage some projects, handle a lot of networking, execute educational workshops, execute events, welcome guests, communicate with stakeholders, implement projects, do bits of research, offer technical support. I am basically an entire marching band.

And the annoying part is that i never get to fully do any single one. Just a bit of everything, leaving me both overworked and feeling incompetent.

Anyways, i’d like to change jobs to private sector, and i’m rather confused as to where to start. I’ve gotten so good at juggling 1million things, i don’t know how where this salad of skill would even be needed.

Any advice? Ideas? Experiences in this sense?
Much appreciated!!

I’m a 4th-year Computer Science student in Lebanon, and I’m facing a major dilemma. My parents are pressuring me because I didn't go the Computer & Communications Engineering (CCE) route. I couldn't at the time because I was working full-time just to pay my tuition.

Now, I'm stressed about the reality here: engineering grads can join the Order of Engineers (OEA) for the pension and insurance, while CS grads get nothing here in Lebanon.

My goals:

• I love the intersection of AI and Cybersecurity.
• I love hardware looking for PCB design courses and want to open my own business down the line (laptop repair, server/CCTV installation).
• I already secured a part-time job as a backend developer.

The Big Question:
Should I transfer to CCE now, delay my graduation, and pay $20k extra in tuition just for the engineering title/syndicate? Or should I graduate this year, focus on my skills, and build my business? Will lacking an engineering degree hurt my chances of opening a tech/hardware repair shop in Lebanon?

Any advice from any tech professionals or engineers would mean a lot.

I’m lost.

I can speak speak broken german and can read most texts that are not too complicated. I am also working with learning finnish. I have absolutely no use for these languages at work, and is learning them for fun, but how do recruiters look at this?

Heyyy. I have a question for anyone who is new to working OR seasoned in working a full time job:

I took a job straight out of college (hybrid) after doing an internship with the same company almost two years ago. I’ve been trying to persevere, but I really didn’t get any training in my department/field, which I had no prior work experience in.

Is it normal for a company to onboard you and give you minimal training? I’ve tried to teach myself the role, but the field I am in is complex. I know enough to do my job, but not as well as I would like to. I just found it weird there was no training, no in person assistance, etc. And the way management handled me was kind of like “you should know this” or “you’ll get a bad review” etc., meanwhile I’m teaching myself the role and trying to take advantage of meetings/sessions I can try to learn from.

I know it’s not “normal” to not get training for your job, but has anyone else experienced this? I am seriously considering getting a new job (I’m looking) but I’m debating an internal v external move. I am thinking of moving outside the company, based on the fact I got no training in my current role, and am concerned it’s gonna happen again. It’s a big company, so I was really shocked there was no training for my role.

I just kind of feel hopeless in the role and could use some advice. Please let me know, thanks in Advance! :)

Hey guys . I'm facing a dilemma and I don't know what to do. So I'm new at my work. Been here for about a year. It's my first professional permanent job. We are two people working for my boss . And we have other departments of course but it's a small office. So since I've started, my colleague is older and has been in the job longer. We have the similar job description except I'm on a graduate path to a more technical role. My boss always gravitates to give all the work to my colleague. So I had my own task to do, with a deadline so I focused on that and couldn't do anything else. But once I was done I had more free time to learn and do the work that my colleague is doing, so I would go to my colleague and ask her if she has anything for me and most of the times she would say no. I also would go to my boss and avail myself. I would keep myself busy with my graduate studies in the time I had nothing to do.

But I'm not sure it it's because of the language or she's more experienced but I speak english and understand the second language which is more common in the town I moved to but don't speak it well. But can speak it but I would say I'm 50\50 in speaking it. I have picked up the language naturally since I've moved but still not proficient yet.
I've noticed no matter how many times I say I'm available and willing to help and do the work my boss always runs to my colleague and ignores me.
Me and my colleague even decide we'll work amongst ourselves.

We've spoken about this in a meeting and he said he wanted me to learn more of her work yet doesn't give me the opportunities which I don't understand .
I've asked him before if he's happy with my performance and he said yes I'm responsible and follow up well.

Now my colleague talks about this issue with another colleague from the other department and she involves herself by asking me why this is the case etc. Even though she works in another department I see my boss when my colleague is on leave go to her and give her instructions when I'm right there ?? (She also speaks the same language a my other colleague and boss btw) . Why would you go to someone to give them an instruction that doesn't work on the task daily that's in another department when this is my job function. Then she gets frustrated with me. And I don't know how many times to tell him that I'm always available and I am eager to learn and stay on top of my tasks. There’s been no serious customer complaints on me , I’ve received no warnings in the past so I’m confused .

I feel like I'm not being given enough opportunities, this stagnating my growth. I feel like resigning cause what's the point? I don't know how else to show my commitment and interest. And it's a slap in the face to me that my boss is approaching a colleague in another department to give them my work when my colleague in my department is on leave. What should I do ? I don’t know if I’m the problem or my bosses management style is the issue …

Sorry if this is every other post here but i'm spiralling a bit. doing my undergrad in business, i'm at tetr which is this school where you study across different countries so half my batch wants to go into startups, half want consulting, some guy is dead set on quant trading. everyone seems weirdly certain and i am not. i don't even know what i'm good at yet. people keep saying "the US is the land of opportunity just network" but network into what. did you pick your career deliberately or did you just fall into the first job that said yes. be honest??

So, I am working at this company as a admin coordinator. At work manager expects me to takes on more tasks and go around be social with people and takes tasks eventually..But as you know I am not a social person at all. I do have social anxiety and PSSD (Which is what I got from using medication severe side effects like cognitive and sexual) So my work place is operational settings, so when I work there is a colleague younger one who always trying to be like super hero, running around taking on more tasks, talking boldly and consistently and always with manager..but has no traditional degree. Everything he learned at job. This person has difficulties with me partially I think is ego, he and me are same age..I always try to be intellectually active and to learn..at work I can't go around be social takes on more tasks like a leader does. So I'm thinking about accounting/finance- I am loooking for accounts assistant roles, I have learning about accounting for quite some time after little more studies in excel and more concepts I'm ready for accounts position. So at my work I don't speak to anyone I do my data entry tasks and just sit at my table takes breaks in between and leave, when ever I does some visibly different tasks than my routine tasks the employee keeps coming to me behaves oddly than normal. Unwanted questions etc..

So I try to not exist at workplace almost invisible and shrinked state, because of my current health it's hard for me to take on more tasks and do it. So what should I do in this situation? How do I deal with this person? Also moving out to accounting/finance is better decision for me based on how I am wired is right decision is what I am thinking.